European women's soccer vision sees place for indie clubs
Clubs such as Fortuna Hjørring and Glasgow City — which do not have men’s teams — are currently a fixture in the later knockout rounds of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Creating new clubs is one of six key goals in a strategy for women’s soccer published by the European Club Association, which represents around 250 men’s clubs. One attraction for the biggest clubs is changes to the UEFA Women’s Champions League, which was won for the past five seasons by Lyon. Another key aim in the ECA is “development of the competition landscape,” with a second European club competition targeted. The ECA strategy also seeks to run more medical research and data analysis projects that are currently lacking in women’s soccer.